Change we can believe in

Earlier this month, the General Services Administration (GSA) held an Industry Day to discuss ways in which industry and newcomers could team up to offer contest services to government agencies. This forms part of the President Barack Obama’s call for government to be more open and participatory.

As part of this, GSA, in collaboration with ChallengePost, have created challenge.gov, a:

one-stop source for all the challenges and contest being offered across the government

The website will be dedicated to hosting federal agency competitions to showcase innovation. GSA said in a statement:

Challenge.gov is a new platform that allows federal agencies to post challenges, and at the same time, allows the public to find federal challenges. It's now open to federal agencies to create challenges or showcase challenges from other platforms.

Bev Godwin, Director for New Media and Citizen Engagement explained the reasons behind the initiative:

GSA is taking citizen engagement to next level of co-creation by tapping the American spirit of creativity. We are accelerating new ideas and innovation as President Obama asked government to engage citizens to accelerate innovation and solve tough problems.

In the video below, Godwin and ChallengePost founder Brandon Kessler talk about the upcoming public launch of Challenge.gov and the potential of grand challenges to improve government efficiency and increase the speed of innovation.

For more on the launch of the site follow Bev Godwin (@BevUSA), and @challengegov on twitter, or check http://challenge.gov.

(H/T FCW.com)

John O'Leary interviews John Strigel, one of the architects of the District of Columbia's City's Data Warehouse initiative, on the impact of making the city's data available to citizens in real time.

Over 320 raw data feeds - in multiple different formats - is made available through the http://data.octo.dc.gov. This was the centerpiece of the the seminal "Apps for Democracy" initiative; an open source competition for the creation of services based on open government data. It has since become a template for open data competitions around the world.

Strigel's advice for other cities thinking of getting opening up their data:

• Start small
• Don't wait for perfect data
• Get publishing

For more on the intervew, check From Data to Transparency in D.C.

(H/T @governing).

Jennifer Bell's post on Canada's VisibleGovernment blog describles a great speech given earlier this year by Suzanne Legault, Canada's Interim Information Commissioner, to a Parliamentary Committe. The speech - described as a "blockbuster" - outlines 5 open government principles required to "lead the paradigm shift from reactive to proactive disclosure, and ultimately to open government". 

The 5 priciples include:

• There must be commitment at the top to lead a cultural change conducive to open government. At a minimum, this involves issuing a declaration on open government with clear objectives. The commitment also entails assigning responsibility and accountability for coordination, guidance and deliverables. It requires prescribing specific timeframes.
• There should be ongoing and broad public consultations. Citizens should be encouraged to participate using electronic means. It is critical to determine what government information the public wants and how they want to receive it.
• Information should be made accessible in open standard formats and rendered re-usable. Information should be derived from various sources and integrated to reduce the silos inherent in bureaucratic structures.
• Privacy, confidentiality, security, Crown copyright and official languages issues need to be addressed and resolved.
• Open government principles should be anchored in statutory and policy instruments.

Along with these principles Legault acknowledges the work done by municipalities and engaged citizens in creating practical applications from open government data:

In municipalities, there are a significant number of practical applications being developed by both the cities and citizens. For example, Edmonton, Nanaimo, Toronto and Vancouver, have mounted online data catalogues containing information regarding council meetings, fire and rescue response reports, garbage collection and public transit schedules and building permit statistics. Many of these, such as property searches and restaurant sanitation reports, are supported by online search engines that allow the public to retrieve and manipulate the data. Ottawa is also moving forward to capitalize on new technologies to expand its service offerings. 

It is at the grassroots level where many of the most innovative initiatives are occurring. These initiatives are an indication of the types of information Canadians actually want. In a recent Globe and Mail article entitled “if you won’t tell us about our MPs, we’ll do it for you”, David Eaves, an internationally recognized open government guru, described new websites mounted by what he called “digital democratic activists”. He cited, as an example openparliament.ca, which enables the public to see what Members of Parliament say, explore how they vote, and search related press stories. Another example is howdidtheyvote.ca. This site provides a breakdown of Members of Parliament statistics, including the number of words spoken in a session, the frequency with which Members vote against their parties and Members’ attendance records.

Along with these Canadian efforts, Legault referred to ongoing open government initiatives in the UK, US and Australia as examples of international leadership in this area.

She ends with:

In 2010, democracy, government efficiency and national prosperity share the same core requirement. Citizens, experts and entrepreneurs must be able to easily access, interact with and reuse current and relevant public domain data. To quote from an excellent report compiled by Deloitte entitled Unlocking Government: How Data Transform Democracy:

Government leaders have before them an opportunity to combine the resourcefulness of online citizens and entrepreneurs with the power of factual data to more effectively achieve their mission. In an information-driven age, the ability of governments to seize this opportunity may ultimately determine whether a government fails or succeeds.

(H/T VisibleGovernment.ca)

Deloite Canada's recent report "Unlocking government: How data transforms democracy" combines information on how governments around the world are becoming more open, innovative and responsive through the release of data. Through this, and various other initiatives, they're seeking to  empower citizens to work with government data to create applications and services to serve the public good.

The report describes how the relationship between government and citizens is undergoing fundamental change. Governments around the world are beginning to understand that through unlocking public data they can fuel new levels of performance. In many jurisdictions, data is now being viewed as a public asset and a right to be leveraged by citizens, businesses and communities.

The full report is available at http://www.deloitte.com/ca/government20, along with an easy to use website to navigate through the report contents. Along with this, they've released various short films which include Bill Eggers (joint author of If We Can Put a Man on the Moon) speaking about the importance of Open government. 

The principle of open government

How governments can use social networks more effectively

How governments can be smarter in their decision-making

The full report is available at Unlocking Government (PDF).

Interesting video from MIT's Center for Future Citiv Media -  The Future of Civic Engagement in a Broadband-Enabled World, a symposium hosted  cooperation with the Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Initiative (broadband.gov).

Moderator: Jerry Mechling, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Speakers:

• Christopher Csikszentmihalyi, MIT Center for Future Civic Media
• Nick Grossman, The Open Planning Project
• Laurel Ruma, O'Reilly Media
• John Wonderlich, The Sunlight Foundation

Related post from Andrea Dimaio on the issue of capturing knowledge that people have on specific issues and utilising and incorporating it into government to improve its effectiveness and efficiency.

Jake Brewer - Campaigns and Engagement Director at the Sunlight Foundation - on the Cycle of Transparency:

This “Cycle of Transparency” demonstrates, in one image, the specific actions and the variety of actors that need to work together to create the open, transparent government we seek.

Ultimately, informed citizen action creates greater public awareness; citizens become more effective, responsible advocates; holding government accountable becomes informed by data rather than inside-the-Beltway pundits, and better decisions can be made for our democracy.

As each element of the Cycle of Transparency moves forward concurrently, bringing about the changes we need to create a more transparent government, we also identify new needs.

At the end of the day, the process that the Cycle of Transparency describes is about creating a government more deserving of our trust, and ultimately, a government that allows its citizens to fully participate and hold government accountable as our Founders intended.

For more, check the full post at Govfresh.

Yesterday, Representative Steve Israel introduced the Public Online Information Act, which if enacted would make vast amounts of government information available online. All too often, information that the law requires be publicly available is hidden within the walls of government departments and agencies and in paper silos.

POIA seeks to tear down these walls by:

• Requiring Executive Branch agencies to publish publicly available information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats.
• Creating a multi-branch advisory committee to develop government-wide Internet publication guidelines.

The legislation requires:

Executive Branch agencies to publish all publicly available information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats. It also creates an advisory committee to help develop government-wide Internet publication policies. Freeing government information from its paper silos provides the private sector with raw material to develop new products and services and gives the public what they need to participate in government as active and informed citizens. Establishing an advisory committee that brings all three branches of government and the private sector together to develop government-wide information best practices will improve how the government serves the American people. 

It has far reaching reaching effects including:

• POIA empowers government oversight and accountability by citizens, media, and government officials alike.
• POIA promotes intra-governmental coordination by bringing key players together to develop common standards for information transmission, streamline government data collection practices, and increase the sharing of information vital to our citizens. 
• POIA contributes to economic growth by helping small and large business innovate, create jobs, and compete globally.

The POIA requires the Executive Branch to follow commonsense rules in making public information available online, and encourages all three branches to work together with the public to develop online disclosure best practices.

Rep. Steve Israel:

This bill will make government more transparent, accessible and efficient.

For more see:

• PublicEqualsOnline
• Making Public Information Available Online: Rep. Israel Introduces the Public Online Information Act
• ThePOIA.org
• The Public Online Information Act
• Follow the conversation on twitter at #thePOIA 

(via SunlightFoundation)

At TED 2009, Tim Berners-Lee called for "raw data now" -- for governments, scientists and institutions to make their data openly available on the web. At TED 2010, he illustrated a few interesting examples of real world linked data.

Some of the examples he references include:

• UK Bike incidents - based on data from data.gov.uk
• Zainsville water map - created by Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities
• Where Does My Money Go - Open Knowledge Foundation
• California stimulus spending - California Economic Recovery Portal
• Postcode Newspaper - Newspaper club
• Afganistan Election data - National Democratic Institute 
• OpenStreetMap Haiti edits - Port-au-Prince before and after
• Haiti OpenStreetMap
• Storytelling with data.gov.uk

More

More on data.gov.uk launch

• Tim Berners-Lee on the launch of data.gov.uk
• Making Data Public: Presentation by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Prof. Nigel Shadbolt -
• Data.gov.uk: the Power of Apps

Government data around the world

• Gov data around the world
• World Government Data

Noel Hidaldo’s (Director of Technology Innovation for the New York Senate) on the role of social media and technology in enabling transparency, participation and collaboration throughout the New York State Senate.

Video from IgniteNYC ‘Government 2.0: An Empire State of Mind.’.

(via @Govfresh)

The Sunlight Foundation recently launched a national campaign to make government more open, transparent, and ultimately: accountable. The campaign has adopted a new logo that can be used by any organization working toward government transparency.

On launching the campaign Sunlight's Engagement Director Jason Brewer explained the new logo and the rational behind the Open Government 'movement':

We hope this emblem is a first step in giving us something we can all own and point to as a symbol for what open government means to us, and what we believe.

[...] We believe that what government does, how it is influenced, or how it spends our money are all things that are public information – and today, “public” means that the government’s data must be accessible by any citizen, at any time, from anywhere: online and in real-time.

Through the campaign we hope to dramatically further the movement for open government that has been building, and give it the infrastructure it needs to be successful at the local, state and federal levels for years to come.

Open Government beliefs

The primary objectives of the campaign - and beliefs at the heart of the Open Government movement - include:

1) An open, transparent Government is something we create when public government data and information about government activity is made easily accessible to us – online and in real-time – and we use it effectively.

2) Government has a responsibility to be open and transparent, but it will not become so on its own.

3) We would rather use positive incentives (the “carrot”) than negative incentives (the “stick”) to make government transparent, but we will use whichever is most effective.

4) Changing the way government thinks and behaves is as important as changing government rules.

5) Technology isn’t part of the open government “pie.” It’s the pan.

6) Changing the way the public thinks about government and how they engage with it, is as important as making government data and information accessible.

7) Effective and responsible engagement with government will make it work better for all Americans.

8) Achieving our vision of a transparent government will require the ongoing commitment of citizens in every district across the United States to make it possible.

9) We will sacrifice “perfect” in order to take action and make progress today.

Open Government Logo

In the video below, Noah Kunin from the Sunlight Foundation walks through the reasoning behind the logo, and explains the campaign to ensure more government is transparent and accountable.

For more on the Campaign for Transparency, and to provide feedback, check out

• Google Group: Citizens for OpenGov
• Wiki: Public=Online
• Sunlight Foundation
  

(H/T) GovFresh